Implications of Rough Dielectric Surfaces on Charging-Adjusted Actuation of RF-MEMS
Abstract
Actuation voltage shifts due to dielectric charging is a leading reliability concern in Radio-Frequency Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (RF-MEMS) capacitive switches. The inability to correlate dielectric surface roughness to charge accumulation makes predictive design difficult. We apply a sophisticated dielectric charging model on representative surfaces based on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) data, and show that there are significant, but predictable actuation voltage shifts due to surface roughness. The results suggest that surface roughness should be considered for accurate lifetime predictions, and simple metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors may serve as a useful test structure for this phenomenon.
Keywords
Surface roughness, dielectric films, RF-MEMS, reliability, leakage currents
DOI
10.1109/LED.2014.2336658
Citation
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6872537
Date of this Version
9-2014
Recommended Citation
Palit, Sambit; Xu, Xin; Raman, Arvind; and Alam, Muhammad Ashraful, "Implications of Rough Dielectric Surfaces on Charging-Adjusted Actuation of RF-MEMS" (2014). Birck and NCN Publications. Paper 1649.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LED.2014.2336658